50 TheSpiritual Life.
thebranchesthatspreadaboveground. Many
a onewhohaslastedthesubtlejoysofspiritual
experience finds therein his reward for the
grosser delights he has renounced, and when
the keen ordeal of spiritual darkness bars his
way, and he has to enter into that darkness
unbefriended and apparently alone, then he
learns by the bitter and humiliating lesson of
disillusionthathehasbeen serving hisidealfor
wages and not for love. Well for us ifwe
can beglad in the darkness as wellas in the
light,bythe sure faith in-though not yet by
the vision of-that Flame which burns ever-
morewithin,THATfrom the lightof whichwe
can never be separated, forit isin truth our
verySelf. BankruptinTime mustwebeere
oursisthewealthoftheeternal,andonlywhen
theliving have abandoned usdoes theVision
of Lifeappear.
Another difficultythat sorelybewilders and
distressesthe aspirantisthe unbidden presence
of thoughts and desires that are mcongruous
with hislife and aims. When hewould fain
contemplatethe Holy,thepresence of theun-
holythrusts itself upon him; whenhe would
see the radiant face of the Divine Man, the
mask of the satyr leers at him in its stead.
Whence these thronging forms of evil that
